Why We Sleep: Difference between revisions

🛌 '''1 – Sleep is your daily charge.''' Sleep is when your body does big jobs: {{Tooltip|NREM}} cleans and repairs, and REM mixes ideas and feelings. If you cut sleep, you lose both kinds of help, so you get sick more, feel grumpier, and make more mistakes.

⏰ '''2 – Work with your body clock.''' Your brain has a 24-hour clock that likes bright light in the morning and dim light at night. Caffeine blocks a “sleepy” chemical ({{Tooltip|adenosine}}), and screens at night delay {{Tooltip|melatonin}}, so avoid late coffee and lower screen light before bed to fall asleep on time.

🧠 '''3 – Sleep grows learning and memory.''' After you study or practice, slow {{Tooltip|NREM}} helps save facts and skills, and REM helps connect them. Protect a full night of sleep (and use short, early-day naps when needed) so your brain can store and organize what you learned.

⚠️ '''4 – A tired brain misjudges itself.''' When you are short on sleep, your attention slips and tiny “microsleeps”“{{Tooltip|microsleeps}}” pop in, even if you feel “okay.” Don’t trust that feeling—set a minimum sleep time and avoid risky tasks like driving after a short night.

🧰 '''7 – Fix insomnia with habits before pills.''' {{Tooltip|CBT-I}} (a skills program) teaches you to keep a regular wake time, use the bed only for sleep, and get up if you can’t sleep. These habits build real, lasting sleep; medicines can be short-term tools but may change sleep quality and carry risks.